The power outage led to long lines in the tri-communities for necessities like fuel. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

energy security

Critical SaskPower transmission line to be major priority for Crown corporation in coming months

May 21, 2021 | 2:02 PM

Addressing a vulnerability in SaskPower’s transmission line to northern Saskatchewan will be a major priority and point of focus for the Crown corporation this year.

That’s according to SaskPower spokesperson Joel Cherry, who said management will be exploring options to modernize and reinforce the northern grid to minimize such incidents in the future. Thousands of northerners were without power for around 80 hours or longer due to a wildfire destroying a section of a transmission line near Prince Albert.

“The northern part of the province definitely provides unique challenges for power restoration efforts,” he said, noting the terrain is difficult and the geographical area is vast. “A lot of customers in the North are only served by one transmission line. We have a few transmission lines that go up to the main corridors to the north. If a line goes down, the community has to stay off until the line is repaired.”

Most SaskPower customers, including those in the tri-communities, had power back by 9 p.m. Thursday, but Grandmother’s Bay and Stanley Mission had to wait until about 2 a.m. this morning. Cherry explained when power was initially restored, those two communities immediately went offline again likely due to a high electrical load. Many northern communities rely on electricity as a primary source of heat.

Hall Lake remained offline until about 11 a.m. this morning and power was restored to customers along Fleet Street in Air Ronge around noon.

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“That sort of clean up work is pretty common after a transmission outage,” Cherry said. “When you have one line serving a large geographic area like that, we don’t necessarily know what sort of issues there are in the distribution system until the transmission issue is fixed.”

As for alternative energy sources for northern Saskatchewan, Cherry explained wind and solar project aren’t feasible because of the geography. He said SaskPower is willing to entertain any offers leadership in northern Saskatchewan offers. Currently, SaskPower is working to create a smart grid across the province to automatically notify them when an outage occurs.

“Right now, we’re reliant on our customers to call us and let us know when the power is out, which is why we may not have known a community was off later into the night,” he said.

larongeNOW reached out to Minister Don Morgan, who is responsible for SaskPower, but didn’t hear back by publishing.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno